Jul 2 A New Life in Europe

We'll say it up front - you have to hear this. The BBC's Manveen Rana follows an average, middle-class Syrian family, the Dhnies, as they attempt to make their way from Jordan, where they have been living as refugees for two years, to Europe. We first meet them in Turkey, where they are contemplating a trip in a crammed rubber boat to Greece, and then follow them across land and sea as their best-laid plans come undone, and are remade, and come undone again. Over weeks of sleeplessness and disappointment, their patience with one another begins to fray, even as they draw closer together for protection. Each member is captured in intimate detail - father Abdur Rauf, who thinks his family needs to toughen up; 22-year-old daughter Alma, who is in single-minded pursuit of an education; articulate, 16-year-old Abyan, who frankly admits that, at this point, he only cares about his own kin - and it's this specificity that makes us think, as we listen, of our own families, and wonder what we would do in the Dhnies' place. Their bravery is astonishing, but this is not a sweet, soft-ball portrayal; Rana often asks hard questions of the family, and they give surprising answers. Each episode runs about 10 minutes long.